The Angel of Darkness and Light
by Alarie
Summary: Light triumphs over darkness. The only thing that makes this victory bittersweet is that evil comes in the form of what was once viewed as goodness in its purest form. The villianess, the mistress of darkness in this upside-down fairytale, sends her final


Disclaimer: I do not now nor ever own "The Tribe." (I still have yet to see the point of these things)

  


Note: This takes place late S2 or early S3.

  


The Angel of Darkness and Light

  


Early morning light gently wafted through the small opening that shed the only light into the cage creating an eerie halo of light in the darkness. Morning had indeed come, despite the feeling of finality of yesterday. Morning came just like it always had–only this time not for everyone's eyes.

The clunk, clunk of combat boots echoed off the cold walls as he descended into the darkness to check on the prisoner. Ryan's flashlight made a muffled thud as he nervously banged it against his hip to keep his mind off things as he glanced into the cage trying not to think of exactly who it was and why they were in there. It hurt too much to think about those things.

Her back was facing away from him as if slumbering peacefully unaware of the harsh frigidity of the cement floor and metal cage she was laying against. The sun's light that managed to shed some light on the cage illuminated her soft blonde curls making him wonder how it was possible that this girl that he once so admired could play any part in something so horrifying. 

Ryan cleared his throat loudly hoping that she would awake so that he might give her the breakfast that was sent down though some had debated on exactly why they should bother feeding her in the first place but compassion and old respect won out in the end. He noted that she did not even stir slightly and remained motionless on the cool floor.

"Wake up," Ryan called loudly trying to sound as cold and unfeeling as he knew her heart had grown. "Breakfast is here."

Still, no movement. Not a sound. Not a stir. Nothing.

"Amber?" Ryan called more quietly this time sending a chill down his spine hearing her name sound in his ears as he rapped on the cage.

Silence answered. 

"Lex!" Ryan called up to the higher reaches of the mall as he hesitated with the keys questioning the situation.

Pushing back his doubt, he opens the door, quickly locking it back just incase, then kneels down putting one of his large hands on her tiny shoulder rolling her over on her back. She had a look of pure tranquility on her angelic face yet something wasn't right. She was too still and peaceful. Suddenly, a strange bottle rolled across the floor stopping with a light clang as it hit the metal of the cage. Everything swirled as things began to come together.

"Lex! Salene! Anyone!" Ryan yelled as his voice broke shaking the motionless body in some pitiful attempt to wake her deadly pill-induced slumber.

Finally, his sound of salvation. The sound of boots echoing on the cold ground–the same ground that was freezing his legs to the bone as he sat there. 

"Ryan!" two maybe even three voices called into the darkness that seems to creep further into the lighted area of the cage to swallow him whole. 

"In here!" his voice was strained as a sob of helplessness seemed to choke him as they threatened to spill over.

"Oh my God!" Salene gasped being one of the first ones to make their way up to the cage to peer in through the crisscrossing net of metal to glance down at the scene.

Ryan was now in a sort of trance like state as he watched the others pour in sweeping her out of the cage in some attempt to rouse her. He heard nothing of their commotion as if none of it really existed. Though everything in his mind was a blank, empty mass something did manage to catch his eye. In the corner where she had been laying lie a letter that must have slipped from her delicate hand.

"To whomever happens upon my finale cerebrations," Ryan half read aloud slowly knowing that Amber was never the person to make this easy but continued anyway.

  
  


_By the time you discover this, hopefully, I would have finally slipped into death that must have awaited me for so long. Finally comes the death of the body that had long ago experienced the death of the spirit._

  


"Is she . . . dead?" he heard Patsy ask quietly behind him where all had gathered around.__

  


_I am finally dying_ _as I should have a year ago atop Eagle Mountain when I laid between heaven and hell, before being snatched from my ascent_ _by an angel fallen from grace. The first time I laid eyes on him and knew what he was he reminded me of Lucifer, the most beautiful angel in heaven who challenged God with his followers. God split open heaven sending Lucifer and his followers into_ _the fiery pit of hell. Hell he remains. My Lucifer. My Prince of Darkness. My Tempter_, _Satan, devil. Yesterday, my beloved tormentor went up in a blaze of fire and smoke calling to all the world that it was finished–it had ended. Today it truly has ended with my last breath._

  


"I...I think I feel a pulse," Dal answered, his voice thick with emotion. "It's so faint. I.... don't think she'll make it."__

  


_ When he pulled me into his black abyss of fire and hell, I partook of my first taste of the forbidden fruit–the evil hidden within–and became his confidant_, _his right hand, and his lover. I became his dark mistress likewise falling from grace as he._

  


"Fight it, Amber. Please fight it," Cloe pleaded. "Please, I know you're not really evil. Don't die." __

  


_The evil that eats away at the inside of every man's heart, that I myself tried so hard to rid myself of, consumed me with his gentle words and soft caresses coaxing me into hopeless submission. How can one escape love's sweet anguish? He knew everything about me–all my thoughts, dreams, loves, everything–yet he remained a mystery as I slept soundlessly at his side in our dark kingdom of tortured screams. Yes, I was by his side. Through everything I never once left._

  


"I don't understand what the fuss is. She wanted to die," Lex spat. "I say we let her."

"Shut up, Lex," Trudy growled"You should have been in that cage with her!"__

  


_It's funny what a man can do to a woman's mind. How can a man easily get such devotion out of one as self-assured, as so set in her own identity as myself, that had never been offered to anyone else in my life? Forsooth, this must be some strange magic that bound me to his side as we stood in the midst of chaos slaying the followers of exactly that: Power and Chaos. Evil slaying evil. A strange site yet it truly fit in this world so foreign from what we once knew._

  


"What about you, Supreme Mother?" Lex sneered at her mention of his involvement in his brother's control of the city.

"That's different and you know it!" Trudy screamed in her defense.

"Shut up, the both of you!" Salene yelled at the two. "Arguing is not helping the situation so sit down and shut up."

  


_He and I, standing side by side wiping out a tribe that viewed another as a god after which we set up ourselves in his place. Gods on earth, we were. Our forces grew and hearts hardened. It was only a matter of time before my raven haired lover and I will_ _rule over the city–our true aim not unlike so many others–hand in hand as we crush all opposition by the blade of our swords and with the might of our forces. All was within our grasps as we moved forward. His dream was coming true. Everything he had done was finally reaping its_ _rewards: the virus, the military camps, the concealing of the antidote, the government cover ups, the building of his army, even the seeking out of his brother had put forth some reward_. _Soon he would begin his glorious rule as it should have been._

  


"Ryan?" a voice called from behind him. "Ryan! Oh, Ryan! Earth to Ryan!"

Folding the letter neatly, Ryan turned around shaking his head in some hopes to free his mind and concentrate on the world around him and not on the past. His eyes came to rest on Dal's dark orbs that held many unshed tears making Ryan realize that this must be the hardest on the growing young man than it was on any of the others. He was not only losing a friend but had lost the memory of his friend that he had held so dear while she was gone. 

"What did you say?" Ryan asked absently as his mind still lingered to the contents of the letter that was held in his closed fist. 

"We need you to help us carry her up to one of the shops so I can look after her properly," Dal said then shifted his gaze off of the man in front of him to glare at Alice who stood seething in her anger in the corner refusing to offer any help to the one she despised.

"Sure," Ryan muttered bending down to pick up Amber's limp body. He knew that he wouldn't be getting any help and he didn't blame the.

He couldn't blame them, Alice especially. How could he blame Alice for her anger against the petite blond that he held in his arms, her head resting on his chest? Amber was the very one that gave the order that broke Alice's amazing spirit that even Ryan had to admire. With one swipe of the blade Alice had been silenced having her tongue cut out. Alice was the only one of the Mallrats to be silenced in that manner, other than Ebony who was never truly considered a part of the tribe. They seemed to have other means of punishment for other resistance to their rule, such as Bray's terrible parting that was burned into all that witnessed its mind. Then, all opposition was met with anguish and now that it was over, scars like Alice's were one of the few markers that it wasn't all a bad dream like many wished.

Ryan blinked in mild surprise as Lex bent to pick up the dying girl's feet then motioning for him the begin his journey up the stairs. Was it a small effort to show respect for lost family by offering to help his love or was it a remnant of emotion left from the seduction that had swayed him that brought the raven haired Mallrat to put forth this display? Ryan wasn't entirely sure but, then again, he had never been able to fully understand just how complex the human mind, and heart, could be. 

It was her room just as she left it. _The Prince_ sat in its place atop the small stand with its page marked with a small scrap of paper. A single picture of her family before adorns the shelves obviously worn from constant handling even though it was placed in a simple frame. Her scent, soft and sweet, still clings to the bright fabric of her comforter refusing to leave its owner's resting place. This is where they laid her prone form. Amber's haven is now her hell as she lay on the edge of death with all those she betrayed hovering about. Worry hung about as she slipped farther in perfect harmony with death that drew her color away to leave a deathly pallor.

After laying down her nearly lifeless, Ryan retreated from the crowded room that reminded him of those spectators that clung to the scene of a car crash or some other calamity watching in rapt attention. It sickened him. 

Carefully, he unfolded the letter once again exposing the flourished handwriting revealing the dying girl's message.

  


_Irony. Irony is what always seems to call, mocking, dancing, playing with all odds. Before the death of the guardians, those that the world belonged to, the humanity believed that good would always triumph over evil. What was evident to those whom opened their eyes, those who saw beyond the fairytale, saw goodness grinded into the dust underneath evil's heavy heal. It was a world draped in sin yet shrouded in dreams. Yet, hell came to earth. The dream sputtered and died along with those who fed it. Sin shown through covering the now undertone of dreams. The rules were reversed. All that was truth became lies. Lies became truth in its pure sense_. _In the mind of children lay the knowledge that the world holds evil, is made of hate, and lives off of death. In the mind of children, we ruled through truth. What slipped between our grasp was the second part of heaven's departure: old dreams become real. The lie of goodness's triumph is no longer a lie. Light now conquers darkness instead of being consumed by it._

  


'Is our world truly that upside-down?' Ryan mused looking down then catching sight of the staircase that now sparkles with cleanliness rather than with the dark gleam of blood flowed like a river down it mere months ago. In this new world death glows like the sun and life seems to pale to that of a corpse.

  


_ For my role as darkness, I do not apologize. A world full of light blinds all offering no way to find the footholds to climb to that future. Darkness is a balance, just as death is. For a demon I became darkness to find a balance. Evil must first conquer before good may vanquish. For the earthly shadow that I loved, I, Amber, once leader of Light and Future, severed all ties to light_ _as I sliced through my past sending the Heir of Righteousness's head plummeting towards hell's fiery pit and his pure blood to stain the holy ground. With the blood sacrifice, I truly became darkness and with Bray's blood and my new love ruled. I was, and even in death, true darkness feeding off light for a time._

  


Ryan pulled his eyes away remembering Bray's dead blank stare. It lay burned into his memory. Always. 

  


Silence. Silence stopped him from his painful memories. Even more painful silence echos. He could feel it. Death slipped in, robbing Amber, the Angel of Darkness and Light, of her last breath. A cry from the room confirmed that. A true death. A wanted death. A death for the body. It slipped in and quickly away leaving everything empty. This emptiness sent a lone tear, a tear neither of sadness nor joy but merely of simple loss. It splashed down upon her last lines.

  


_Here I wish to be consumed by the light once more and to be ripped apart by it. No tears and no fears. My death has long passed and my child, the little one growing and forming innocently inside of me, will never know the pain of living and only the peaceful light that welcomes it. The darkness of what I've become has passed away leaving only a fading memory. This I leave you. A tear of death and memories of good and evil. My choice, my death, has come and I embrace it. _

_ All my love _

  


Ryan held back an empty sob as he saw that she never signed it. It was her. It was her soul, yet she never wrote her name upon it. It lay finished only lacking her last tie to earth: her name.

  


************

  


This was my last Tribe fic. I meant it as a short story though it ended up longer than I planned. Though, I believe that it was rather fitting for my last piece of fan fiction for The Tribe. This was posted at the bulletin board incomplete by the name "Of Heaven and Hell, Angels and Demon" but I decided approximately two hours ago to finish it. Hopefully I didn't ruin what I had before by completing it.


End file.
